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Chinese director Vivian Qu is in Berlin Film Festival’s competition this year with feminist, film studios-set thriller Girls on Wire, charting the fortunes of two cousins born into China’s economic miracle of the 1990s.

Qu previously enjoyed success in Berlin as the producer of 2014 Golden Bear winner Black Coal, Thin Ice by Diao Yinan, while her second feature as a director Angels Wear White (2017) won more than 40 awards on the festival circuit having premiered in Venice.

Girls on Wire reunites Qu with actress Wen Qi (aka Vicky Chen), who got her big break in Angels Wear White and has since become a big star in China. She co-stars opposite equally buzzy actress Liu Haocun.

Wen Qi plays Fang Di, the older cousin who takes on physically gruelling work as a stuntwoman double in China’s largest film studios to clear family debts,...

In her two previous films, Chinese filmmaker Vivian Qu’s obvious interest in surveillance has driven her narratives. In her debut feature “Trap Street,” CCTV is both a help and a hindrance; while sophomore feature “Angels Wear White” hinges on the power of a well-timed recording. If you can put it on tape, Qu’s films argue, maybe you can understand a little better. You can at least watch it again, perhaps with fresh eyes, fresh perspective.

Qu’s third film, Berlin premiere “Girls on Wire,” is less obsessed with literal surveillance tape, but the filmmaker’s compulsions toward the power of the screen remain, even if they take a different shape. Granted, we don’t get to the screen for a while, instead opening in a dank, dismal cave where one of our two leading ladies has been trapped in a drug-induced hell. Soon, however, the quick-witted Tian Tian (Lia Haocun) has freed herself,...

Amsterdam- and Beijing-based Fortissimo Films is to pre-sell Chinese crime drama “Family at large,” kicking off at the Cannes Market.

The film had previously been announced with sales handled jointly by Fortissimo and Rediance. Now, Fortissimo alone is representing rights worldwide, ex-China.

Directed by Kang Bo, the film is set in the chilly far north of the country. A man, nicknamed “Reindeer,”, is released from prison and becomes involved in a child-abduction case across Northeast China. The man, a pregnant young woman and a mute boy wade into the dense forests of the frozen North in search of an abducted child. The film exposes a family-run human trafficking organization and portrays the underworld of the Northern border of China.

The cast is headed by the in-demand Hu Ge “(“The Wild Goose Lake,” Wong Kar-wai’s TV series “Blossoms”), “Angels Wear White” star Wen Qi (aka Vicky Chen), Yan Ni and Song Jia.

Image caption: “The Growth” by Sarah Cheok (Singapore)

Cartoons Underground, Se Asia’s top independent animation festival, is marking 10 years of helping to propel fledgling local film makers towards greater things.

Studio heads, directors and animators, some of whose careers were launched at Cartoons Underground, are lauding the vital part it plays in encouraging a thriving independent animation sector in Singapore.

The brainchild of Singaporean festival director Vicky Chen and celebrated American animator Patrick Smith, Cartoons Underground showcases new animation from around the world but gives films from South East Asia and, especially, from Singapore-based student animators extra exposure.

Chen, who launched the event aged just 21, has long been an avid follower of the local animation scene.

“We always believed Singapore had this huge potential to be a hub for independent animation for the entire region,” she says. “When we launched Singapore was trying to tempt the big international studios.

*Scape Co. Ltd, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting youths, announced that it is the official programme partner of Cartoons Underground, Singapore’s very own, and Southeast Asia’s largest, festival of animation. The event has ditched traditional venues for a special online interactive 360° festival environment with a real Singaporean Heartland vibe.

It has been created by CG lead Enrique Caballero and independent illustrator, Lee Xin Li (Pok Pok & Away). Festival goers will be able to explore a virtual world filled with films, behind the scenes footage, Q&a with directors and an artist market supporting Singaporean small businesses all hosted on the website, www.cartoonsunderground.com.

The festival, which expands this year from a single evening to run across five days from Wednesday 9th to Sunday 13th December, will feature 150 minutes of animated short films as well as Q&a sessions with the directors and a conversation between Hollywood director,...

We are delighted to announce this long-awaited, award-winning film – an orgy of betrayal – with an all-female cast starring Kara Wai, Wu Ke-Xi, and Vicky Chen, which garnered Best Feature Film, Best Leading Actress, Best Supporting Actress and the People’s Choice Award at the Golden Horse Awards, will be coming to the UK Cineworld cinemas from 4th September 2020.

Attractive matriarch Madame Tang (Kara Wai) uses culture as a cover as she takes advantage of her late husband’s connections in politics to whitewash shady business deals for the benefit of herself, and her two daughters Ning (Ke-Xi Wu) and Chen (Vicky Chen). Mrs. Tang, who ostensibly runs an antique dealership and dabbles in calligraphy, colludes and mediates between crooked politicians and dubious private businessmen, and frequently entertains them and their elegant wives chatting about art and fashion, while secretly making sure bribes are secured and deals are done.

When a...

A woman’s 30-year longing for the man she can’t stop loving is chronicled in “Somewhere Winter,” a rewarding adaptation of the novel by prolific author and screenwriter Rao Xueman. by top Mark Lee Ping Bing (“In the Mood for Love”) and features fine performances by Ma Sichun (“Soulmate”) and Wallace Huo (“Our Time Will Come”) as lovers torn apart by fate, family responsibilities and political forces. This handsomely packaged item from producer Jimmy Huang and director David Wang Weiming (“Sex Appeal”) should receive a warm reception when it opens in China and North America on Nov. 15.

The film’s title refers to “Possibly in Winter,” a 1987 hit by Taiwanese singer Chyi Chin that inspired a teenage Rao Xueman to write to her idol. Chyi’s ballad about long-distance relationships provided the linking device for Rao’s 2018 novel about a woman’s romantic journey during times of great social and economic change in China.

Father To Son and The Bold, The Corrupt And The Beautiful were also big winners at awards held during Taipei Film Festival.

Sung Hsin-yin’s animated feature On Happiness Road won the $33,000 (Nt$1m) Grand Prize at this year’s Taipei Film Awards, while Dear Ex was the biggest winner overall with four prizes.

On Happiness Road, the story of a young woman reminiscing about her childhood after returning to Taiwan from the Us, also picked up the audience award and shared the Best Animation prize with Pan Sz-yu’s musical animation Neon.

Dear Ex (pictured), about a woman feuding...

“The Bold, the Corrupt, and The Beautiful” is about a female family, who plays middle-man in a series of political corruption and bribes. Combining a love/hate relationship among the family members with complicated money trade, this film was the most ambitious work in Taiwanese cinema last year.

The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful is screening at the 17th New York Asian Film Festival

The story begins with Madame Tang, who hosts an art exhibition with her family members Tang Ning and Tang Chen. In fact, it’s an art exhibition for those rich politicians to have a chance to discuss the bribe. They conspire a land development project, and with Madame Tang’s assistance, every detail of this endeavour should work perfectly, and they can earn billions from the project. However, a homicide disrupts the whole plan, revealing the situation as more complicated than everyone has imagined. Furthermore,...

Inarguably this country’s best annual showcase of new Asian cinema, the New York Asian Film Festival is back with a vengeance, and its Savage Seventeenth edition might be the best one yet. Not only is the 2018 program one of the biggest that Nyaff has ever put together, but it’s also likely the most varied and comprehensive, as the lineup includes 58 films of all shapes and sizes.

From the second-highest-grossing blockbuster in Chinese history to a Malaysian horror film that was shot in 2006 and banned until now — from a lewd biopic about a Japanese pornographer to a social drama set in the Philippines’ underground rap community — the Nyaff 2018 slate is as varied as it is thrilling.



While American audiences will have to wait a little while longer to feast their eyes on recent Cannes breakouts like “Burning,” “Shoplifters,” and “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” it’s worth noting that many — most,...

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Tully

Charlize Theron stars as a new mother overwhelmed by baby care who bonds with her night nanny (Mackenzie Davis). Written by Diablo Cody. (male director)

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Angels Wear White [pictured]

Vivian Qu writes and directs this drama about how a teenaged girl (Vicky Chen) and a tween (Meijun Zhou) react when one of them suffers a sexual assault.

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Rbg

Julie Cohen and Betsy West direct this documentary biography of pioneering judicial activist and Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

my review | find cinemas

Everything Else

Natalia Almada writes and directs this drama about a woman (Adriana Barraza) who reawakens herself to life in her 60s.

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The Desert Bride

Cecilia Atán and Valeria Pivato direct and cowrite this adventure drama about a woman (Paulina García) whose life is upended when her job is threatened.

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Altered Perception

Kate Rees Davies directs...

At last year’s Venice Film Festival, just one film from a female filmmaker — Vivian Qu’s “Angels Wear White” — was counted amongst the starry competition titles, and while Qu’s film didn’t win the big prize, it walked away with its own timely distinction: it’s a #MeToo film made before #MeToo swept Hollywood. Just weeks after Venice wrapped, disgraced producer Harvey Weintsein was accused of multiple acts of sexual assault and harassment, setting loose a new era in the industry.

Qu’s film proved to be a prescient piece of #MeToo cinema during its premiere, and its power has only increased during the subsequent months between its Venice debut and its domestic release.

Half-noir, half-human drama, the film follows young hotel clerk Mia (Vicky Chen), who witnesses a horrific sexual assault perpetrated against a pair of young schoolgirls by a middle-aged man during a night shift. Terrified of losing her job,...

“The Bold, the Corrupt, and The Beautiful” is a film about a female family, whose act as middle-men in a series of political corruption bribes. Combining a love/hate relationship between family members with complicated money trade, this film is the most ambitious work in Taiwanese cinema for 2017.

“The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful” is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam, that will be on January 24 until February 4.

The story begins with Madame Tang, who hosts an art exhibition with her family members Tang Ning and Tang Chen. In reality, the exhibition is an excuse for some rich politicians to discuss the bribe. These politicians conspire a land development project, and with Madame Tang’s assistance, every detail should work perfectly, and they can earn billions. However, a homicide disrupts the whole plan, revealing the situation as more complicated than everyone has imagined. Furthermore, the hatred and control relationships...

Being the biggest of its kind in Asia, the Busan International Film Festival offers an excellent showcase for emerging talents from the vast and vastly varied continent. Premiering in the regionally focused section “A Window on Asian Cinema”, the alluring, densely-packed dramatic thriller The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful makes a case for genre filmmaking in Taiwan, a country audiences worldwide probably associate with the lyrical, contemplative imagery of Hou Hsiao-hsien or Tsai Ming-liang . Thanks in no small part to a sizzling female ensemble (actressexuals: take note), director Ya-che Yang’s third feature shows a snappier side of the island and thoroughly entertains.

Set in the indeterminate past in the tropical metropolis Kaohsiung, the story centers around Madame Tang (Kara Wai) – who ostensibly runs an antiques dealership but mainly acts as a go-between for dirty businessmen and crooked politicians – and her two daughters Ning (Ke-Xi Wu) and Chen...

Let’s think about the title to Vivian Qu’s sophomore effort Angels Wear White because the meaning goes far beyond the words themselves. On the surface it’s simply describing religious iconography and the idea that angels wear flowing white linens with halos on heads and harps in hands. But we’ve taken this concept and brought it into real life too. “White” has become synonymous with purity, trust, and expertise. We see a white lab coat on a doctor and automatically provide him/her a reverence built on nothing but an article of clothing. We don’t know them. We merely assume they have our best interests in mind. That white sheen doesn’t mean they’re incorruptible, though. Anyone can be bought or sold despite appearances. Everyone has a price.

Perhaps the cost is paid with money or maybe silence. For the young women at the center...